Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.—Proverbs 4:7

Why is wisdom so important? Wisdom—the sense of the fitness of things—is the gateway to understanding. What is there to understand? Many things, of course, but to understand in the highest sense—to “stand in the midst of”—is to know the truth and to be set free thereby.

Everyone loves a good quote, but man cannot live by memes alone. To truly understand you must have a comprehensive philosophy, an integrated worldview that emerges from and aligns with truth. Fortunately, truth is never in conflict with itself, so the notion that truth is individualized (e.g. “your truth” and “my truth”) is nonsense. Truth is universal, absolute. Human belief or opinion—be it momentary or long-held—has no bearing on truth. No amount of believing a falsehood to be true makes it true. Likewise, no amount of wishing a truth to be false makes it any less true.

Furthermore, the idea that truth is complicated or somehow hard to grasp is a fallacy. Truth is always simple, beautiful, clear, and liberating. Truth is often compared to light. Truth illuminates. Truth shines in the face of ignorance; ignorance is the absence of the light of truth. Just as light and darkness are not pairs of opposites, truth is a presence; lies, an absence.

Dare to live beyond the world of competing, conflicting belief and opinion. Dare to stop paying rent for a room in or aspiring to living on a higher floor of the Towel of Babel. Dare to let yourself feel the pattern of reality, the “Word”, the logos, that connects you to everything that is. But don’t stop there! Dare to understand it—to stand in the midst of it—henceforth.

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash